Smashy Trashy

Def Jux shares more than just a near-homophonic similarity with Def Jam. If Cannibal Ox is a new-age EPMD and ...

Def Jux shares more than just a near-homophonic similarity with Def Jam. If Cannibal Ox is a new-age EPMD and El-P is a one-man Public Enemy, S.A. Smash is the black Beastie Boys. Def Jux has been pushing S.A. Smash as the underground's answer to the city walkers, the music we (and we alone!) could get jiggy to, waving our Aesop Rock wristbands in the air with reckless abandon. But there's a problem with this theory: the underground's purpose was to be the other side of the balance beam, the hip-hop with a message. S.A. Smash's message seems tailor-made for New York radio, except for the fact that they are fucking terrible at rapping.

Similar gruff voice, bouncy cadence and narrow subject matter bind them together as the Smash Brothers. These two emcees are the sound of 106 & Park ambition. It's no surprise that they're from the same crew as Copywrite, as the lyrics are all about how dope they are, how much they love vagina and how much they could kick your ass. It's boring, derivative and lacking of the main factor that makes commercial rap enjoyable: the rainbow of emotions and situations touched on. These guys are all good times and no backlash.

The reason this album doesn't work is because they don't have the emotional severity and nonchalant allure of commercial artists, they don't have the intelligence and song structure of underground artists, and they can't write a chorus to save their lives. Choruses range from painful ("You're a Robot, where's my people?/ You're a systematic format and you're lethal!") to bizarre (off-key crooning in the tradition of Cappadonna and ODB: "Man, I know this seems weird to you/ We're the only niggaz in the room!") to song-destroying (horribly failed faux-Parliament "ooh's" and "ahh's"). All the songs could just be condensed into one single sentient song.

The main thing you'll notice off the bat is that S.A. Smash have a penchant for getting monstrously overshadowed. Cage, the dope rapper that no one will admit to liking, rapes the opener "Smash TV" ("Turn on the TV, smash the S.A., with an I-N-S-A-N-E/ heaters smoke until his lungs empty"), Vast Aire beats the home team at their own game on "Slide On 'Em" ("Computer nerds, life is bigger than iMac/ That's why, backstage, with your girl, I mack!") and Aesop "The Drawing Point" Rock brings out a brilliant road sex narrative on "Love to Fuck" ("She's grabbing at the car keys, I pull over to the shoulder, stop sudden/ A second later, we're both riding shotgun"). This is the sound of a show being stolen.

"Ain't shit worse than a waste of talent," the chorus on "Illy" exclaims. Ironic that this song boasts the only El-P beat. But maybe I'm being too hard. Camu Tao is a rapper with a massive amount of potential, as evidenced on his solo 12-inch banger "Move the Crowd". I mean, seriously, it's not like they sampled Led Zeppelin or something.

OH WAIT, THEY FUCKING DID. "Last Night" steals "The Ocean" in a manner slightly more heinous than Puffy ripping off "Kashmir". See, Puffy doesn't have any common sense. Stealing is expected from someone like him. But as an artist that has clearly been staring at the industry for ages, Camu should know better than to jack a rock standard.

Regardless, the beats are a bright spot on the toilet in this instance. Tao has a level of production talent where he can shoot out moderately chopped club bangers like Ecstasy pills to inebriated girls. Their composition is still somewhat sloppy, forgettable and uninspired, but they still get the job done. Overall, the best drops are by El-Producto (the mindblowing, multi-layered guitar assault "Illy"), Blockhead (the smooth funk on "Love to Fuck") and Przm (the slow-motion saloon bass funk of "I Know What You're Thinking").

An interesting point can be made that Camu uses the same sample on "Spot Tonight" that Kanye West blessed Freeway with on "Hear the Song" earlier this year. Comparing the two beats shows the huge valley of talent within and the fact that the commercial world has already made this album with a higher level of quality and polish. Hopefully they can make like the Beastie Boys, leave Russ-El and join a label where they can expand into the environment that they so obviously feel they belong.